The number of courses recognised since 1917-18 is shown in the following table : 162. Further grants under Article 43 of the Regulations for Secondary Schools (Wales) were paid in respect of expenditure incurred during the school years 1921-22 and 1922-23 by the Governors of Ruabon County School on account of the experimental work being done at that school in connection with the teaching of Geography. The continuance of this special grant is under consideration. The experiment is one of considerable interest, and the Board hope to arrange shortly for the publication of a report on it in the form of a pamphlet. 4. Miscellaneous. 163. Foreign Assistants.-The number of assistants assigned to Welsh Secondary Schools under the arrangements with the French Government since 1917-18 was only one during each of the school years 1917-18 and 1918-19. In 1919-20 the number of assistants rose to six, one in each of six schools, and remained the same in 1920-21, but with one in each of four schools and two in one school. In 1921-22 the number of assistants was four, one in each of two schools and two in one school. In each of the years 1922-23 and 1923-24 the number of assistants was four, one in each of four schools. 164. Observation Visits by Teachers.-During the year 1922-23 no applications for special visits to other schools by teachers under Article 44 of the Regulations were received. In 1921-22 one visit was paid by a mistress to a school in England for the purpose of studying the teaching of Mathematics. 165. Examinations.-The Board, after considering a report of the Secondary School Examinations Council on an investigation of the standard and method of award of the certificates of the Central Welsh Board, decided, on the recommendation of the Council, to recognise the Higher Certificate Examination of that Board as a Second Examination. The following are the numbers of the pupils in Secondary Schools in Wales on the Grant List, who entered for or took the approved examinations in 1922-23. 4,494 entered for the First Examination. 528 actually took the Second Examination. Of the pupils who took the First Examination, 2,725 (63 per cent.) passed, and of those who took the Second Examination 349 (66.1 per cent.) passed. The great majority of the pupils took the approved examinations of the Central Welsh Board, the other examinations taken being the following: the Oxford Senior and Higher Local Examinations, the School Certificate and Higher Certificate Examinations of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board and the General School Examination of the University of London. 5. Welsh Intermediate Schools. 166. The schools which form a part of the Welsh Intermediate School system are at present 101 in number, and are all included among the 150 Secondary Schools in Wales recognised by the Board of Education as efficient. A separate Report on the Board's proceedings under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889, is presented to Parliament annually by the Board pursuant to the provisions of that statute; and the Report for 1923 has already appeared. 6. Schemes under the Charitable Trusts Acts for Secondary Schools. 167. During the year 1922-23, four schemes for Secondary Schools were established. Of these four schemes, two were occasioned by the necessity of increasing the maximum tuition or boarding fees allowable under pre-existing schemes in order to provide for the increase in the cost of maintenance and of boarding. C.-SECONDARY SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL. 168. We print hereunder the report of the Council for the year 1922-23: "During the year 1922-23 the Council held five meetings and, in addition, its Standing Committee met on seven occasions. "Miss F. M. Gadesden retired from the Council and was succeeded by Miss L. A. Lowe, Head Mistress of Leeds Girls' High School. The appointment of Mr. Cookson as secretary of the Council having terminated, the President of the Board of Education appointed him a supernumerary member of the Council in succession to Mr. H. G. Abel. An application from the Teachers' Registration Council for an additional representative was approved, and Mr. J. Talbot, Head Master of Haileybury, was accordingly nominated to the Council. 66 The investigators' report on the School Certificate Examination held in 1921 by the Universities of Durham and Bristol and the Central Welsh Board was considered by the Council, upon whose recommendation the Board continued their recognition of these examinations. The Council were informed that the University of London had agreed to accept school certificates issued by Durham University as exempting the holders, under certain conditions, from the London Matriculation Examination. "The Council have had under consideration the conditions of the award of Higher Certificates and they have adopted the following resolutions :- (a) That the requirement of an examination in a subsidiary subject be left in future to the discretion of the Examining Bodies. "In adopting this resolution the Council have no intention of abandoning the principle that the years between sixteen and eighteen should not be wholly devoted to specialisation in a single group of subjects; but experience has convinced them that, though at least one subsidiary subject should always be studied, it is not in every case desirable that it should be offered for examination. (b) That in the Modern Studies and Science groups no examination can be approved in which only two subjects are tested, it being understood that the third subject may be taken either at group or at subsidiary level. (c) That if Mathematics be taken as a separate group, a candidate must also satisfy the examiners in another subject, at least at subsidiary level. "In response to representations urging the desirability of greater freedom in the combination of subjects in the Higher Certificate Examinations, the Council have also resolved : 64 (d) That in those examinations in which a subsidiary subject is not required to be taken, candidates in the Modern Studies and Science groups should be allowed, at the discretion of the Examining Bodies, to offer two subjects from the group selected and a third subject from another group. (e) That in those examinations in which four subjects are required (three within a group and a subsidiary subject from outside the group) candidates should similarly be allowed to offer any three of the four subjects required at group level, the remaining subject being taken at subsidiary level. These resolutions have been communicated to the Examining Bodies. "The recommendations contained in the report of the Board's Consultative Committee upon the differentiation of curricula in schools for boys and schools for girls have been under consideration in so far as they affect the position of Art and Music in approved examinations. The Council felt that, in the first instance, the standards and methods of award in the existing examinations in these subjects should be investigated. Arrangements were accordingly made, with the sanction of the Board and of the Treasury, to hold such an investigation in the course of the Christmas vacation, 1923." CHAPTER IV. TECHNICAL COLLEGES, ETC., AND CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT. A.-TECHNICAL COLLEGES, ETC., IN ENGLAND (EXCLUDING MONMOUTHSHIRE). 1. The Larger Technical Colleges and Schools. 169. The latest particulars of the larger institutions for technical education are for the year 1921-22, and show that in the 123 institutions there were 8,385 full-time and 149,852 part-time students taking vocational courses, in addition to 1,290 part-time students in courses specially planned for persons engaged in teaching, and 1,651 students in courses of the Day Continuation School type. We explained in our last Report the principles governing the organisation of these institutions. There has been a decline in the number of students in all sections of the work as will be seen from the following comparison : Among the causes which contributed to the rapid growth of numbers of full-time and part-time students in these institutions in the school years 1919-20 and 1920-21 one, at least, would necessarily be of much diminished effect on the attendance in the school year 1921-22, viz., the demand of ex-service officers and men for the technical instruction which, but for the war, they would have desired at an earlier age (if at all). By the beginning of the school year 1921-22 this demand had been to a large extent satisfied, and the depressed condition of trade and industry has accentuated that fall in numbers, which was otherwise to be expected. 2. Other Institutions with Day Courses. 170. There are other Technical Schools not included among the principal Technical Colleges of the country, which provide technical institution courses or day technical classes. The volume of day instruction in these schools in the school year 1921-22 was as follows: |